The Griffins stormed back from two goals down midway through the third period to pull out a 4-3 victory and eliminate the Marlies from the AHL playoffs.

Marlies goalie Drew MacIntyre stones Grand Rapids' Riley Sheahan during second-period action in Game 6 of the AHL Western Conference semifinals on Tuesday night. The Marlies were eliminated with a 4-3 loss.

Toronto Marlies coach Dallas Eakins never changed anything when his team went up 3-1 heading into the third period.

“Why would you?” Eakins said. “We wanted to continue the forecheck. We wanted to play aggressive.

“We looked like we had everything under control. But a couple of missed assignments and a bad bounce and everything turned the other way.”

So instead of forcing a Game 7, the Marlies’ bid for a Calder Cup title ended on Tuesday night when the Grand Rapids Griffins stormed back from two goals down midway through the third period to earn a 4-3 victory before an announced crowd of 2,811 at the Ricoh Coliseum.

The Griffins took the best-of-seven AHL Western Conference semifinal 4-2 and now play the Oklahoma City Barons for the conference championship.

Tomas Tatar, with his second goal of the game, and Jan Mursak scored 56 seconds apart midway through the final frame to tie the game before Luke Glendening fired the winner with just 4:03 to go.

Carter Ashton, Paul Ranger and Will Acton scored for Toronto, who were outshot 31-18 and were dominated for long stretches after taking a 3-1 lead.

“When they scored that third goal you could feel it coming,” said Eakins, who told his players how proud he was of their effort this season. “I told them how proud I was to be their coach. How we had to battle every night to get points and how we somehow managed to stay in it.

“We’ve built this organization with good young men.”

Despite losing a big chunk of their team to the Maple Leafs after the NHL lockout ended in January, the Marlies still won the North Division for the second consecutive season using a rookie-laden lineup.

The Marlies took a 3-1 lead into the third after Acton scored his fourth of the playoffs just 37 seconds after Tatar skated around Toronto defenceman Mike Mottau and lifted a rising backhand past Marlies goalie Drew MacIntyre to end his shutout bid.

But the Griffins dominated for stretches in the middle frame and MacIntyre needed to be sharp to keep his team ahead.

Ranger’s shot from the point with just 2.4 seconds left in the first period put the Marlies ahead 2-0. Griffins goalie Petr Mrazek stopped the shot but it trickled between his legs.

It was a fairly even opening 20 minutes after Ashton took a pass from Joe Colborne and beat Mrazek with a wrist shot through the five-hole just four minutes into the game. It was Ashton’s third goal of the playoffs.

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